“We need the sisterhood. We need the village.” In this video above I sit down with my OBGYN and Birthing Educator for a birthing team ‘debrief.’ I would love to hear your birth stories and lessons learned. Leave a comment on social media. I love to hear from you!

My OBGYN, Dr. Jan Dudley and doula, prenatal yoga instructor, and creator of She Births childbirth education program, Nadine Richardson, have a lot of great insight on how to make the birthing experience a beautiful one. They talk about what we can learn about ourselves from pregnancy and childbirth. And how we can channel that same strength and perseverance right into parenthood.

“Learning in pregnancy to drop the judgment of yourself is such a great way to launch into parenthood. Because the last thing we need is to feel isolated. And that’s what judgment does. If we are judging ourselves, we stay at home in our little bubbles, and we go to mother’s groups and we start judging. And that happens a lot. But we don’t need to. We need women that are empowered and happy. And that’s how you’re going to be the best mom.”

I love the quotes above from Nadine Richardson. During pregnancy, I learned so much. I have always been a go, go, go, go, GO kind of person. Pregnancy and motherhood have slowed me down in the best way possible. Motherhood has taught me patience, acceptance, empathy

I can tell you the deep breathing techniques I learned in the She Births education program helped me to have a an epidural free birth (even with a posterior baby). In the end it was a difficult delivery though. Brooksy’s heart rate dropped from the cord being around his neck and he had to be suctioned / vacuumed out. Breathing techniques and getting in the ‘athletic zone’ are what helped me. Believe it r not, I didn’t even realize it was a “traumatic birth” in a lot of ways. But it did slow down my recovery a bit when I wanted to get back to running and jumping.

My mindset and inner strength is what got me through the birth and the recovery. If you’re about to birth a baby too…. YOU GOT THIS, MAMMA!

Sending you so much love.

Back to my birth experience —-

Dr. Dudley was awesome. I think it is important to 100% trust your doctor. And I loved mine. She did unfortunately have give me episiotomy and suction him out. This of course is not what I wanted. But I really did feel like it was a beautiful birth. Brooks was healthy and that’s what mattered most.

He stayed in special-care over night - but the nurses let me stay in there with him to ‘nurse him.’ Everything seemed fine, but because there had been meconium in the sac when they broke my waters, doctors thought it would be best for him to stay just overnight.

Overall birth was a wild but BEAUTIFUL experience. And I was very proud of what my body did. … I mean really… what EVERY mother’s body can do. It made me so proud to be a female. Does that make sense? Do you feel the same?

Newer deep breathing techniques I learned after having my son, have also helped me knit my abs separation back together and get my flat tummy back.

It is important for us to start with specific foundational exercises like 360 breathing, pelvic floor, and TVA, transverse abdominis activations and relaxations.

Check out my Strong Sexy Mammas fitness membership to see which exercises I did for my deep core. The exercises are subtle. No sit-ups or crunches involved early on. It may seem like the exercises aren’t working you hard enough, but trust the scientific research that says deep diaphragmatic breathing and working your transverse abs can zip you back up like a corset! These are foundational exercises to build upon with progressive overload. Getting our bodies back is all about the order of exercise. We need a strong foundation for stability before we move to loaded strength and power moves.

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XO Anna

The information on AnnaKooiman.com and StrongSexyMammas.com is general in nature, but not one size fits all.

Be your own advocate. Take control of your own health. See medical professionals and do your own research. Get your groove back!

Check out what the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has to say about exercise after pregnancy.